• Reorganisation of transport services completed in just six months
• Four partners take over large service packages, others have been added
• Ramp-up of resources: more personnel and rolling stock required

(Frankfurt/Main, 19. Februar 2025) Kombiverkehr KG has successfully completed the traction reorganisation project in just six months. At the shareholders' meeting in June 2024, the company announced that due to EU proceedings against the Federal Republic of Germany as the owner of DB Cargo, it would reorganise the purchased traction services and transfer a large part of the transport operations to other rail transport companies (RUs). As of February, the Frankfurt operator has mastered and completed this task with the combined efforts of all RUs and its own workforce. Converting the transport operations in a short space of time was a complex undertaking. ‘It involved the overall handling of the transport operations - from traction, wagons and order processing to interaction in international business,’ reports Managing Director Armin Riedl. The wagon management in this certainly unique project in rail freight transport was handled by the company's own subsidiary Dienstleistungsgesellschaft für Intermodale Verkehre (DIV).

Large service packages at KombiRail Europe, Lokomotion, SBB Cargo International and also still at DB Cargo

Most of the alternative rail transport companies are long-standing, permanent partners. However, new ones have also been added. Particularly large service packages are now the responsibility of four rail freight companies, some of which have been associated with the company for a long time. These include the wholly-owned subsidiary KombiRail Europe B.V. and Munich-based Lokomotion GmbH, in which the Frankfurt-based operator holds a 20 per cent stake. KombiRail Europe now handles all national transport, continental transport between Germany and the Netherlands and between Duisburg and Poznan. ‘Such a ramp-up curve in such a short space of time has probably never been achieved by a rail transport company,’ says Managing Director Heiko Krebs. The organisation at KombiRail Europe had to be set up accordingly, additional traction units had to be hired, locomotive drivers had to be recruited and the IT systems had to be adapted.

Lokomotion has also taken on additional transport services. What is new is that the specialist for transalpine transport now operates in a direct contractual relationship with Kombiverkehr instead of previously acting as an executive carrier for DB Cargo. ‘It goes without saying that we will remain associated with our original shareholder, the rail freight operator DB Cargo,’ emphasises Riedl. ‘We are very grateful that we were able to agree early handover dates with them in a proven close and cooperative partnership. This was the only way to realise a ramp-up in the traction changeover instead of converting the entire package of connections in one day at the timetable change in a rush. DB Cargo therefore played a major role in the successful transformation and continues to be an important partner in our network.’ Kombiverkehr will continue to procure traction services from DB Cargo for the French and Spanish services as well as for two train products to Sweden and one to Italy.

The fourth traction company in the group is SBB Cargo International. It operates on behalf of Kombiverkehr from Mortara to Duisburg, Rotterdam and Ghent. For the first time, the trains will run on the Mortara-Ghent route on the French side. ‘This means we always have an efficient and reliable alternative to the Rhine Valley route,’ says Krebs, highlighting another advantage of the reorganisation. This makes rail freight transport more resilient overall, as further disruptions and impairments cannot be ruled out on the German side of the Rhine in the coming years due to construction sites. In addition to the aforementioned transport services, the Swiss company also operates the Antwerp-Duisburg and Cologne-Basel trains.

Kombiverkehr works with 18 rail freight companies, eleven of which are direct contractual partners

Following the traction changeover, 18 railway undertakings are partners of Kombiverkehr. Eleven of these are direct contractual partners - so-called contractual carriers - who in turn commission seven other rail transport companies to provide services as executive carriers. New additions to the intermodal network include Frachtbahn from Vienna and Hector Rail from Bochum. In total, Kombiverkehr has changed partners on around 35 routes. Immediately after the plans were presented in June 2024, implementation began and one route after another was transferred to new partners. The number of changes was particularly high at the timetable change on 15 December. ‘A dozen services were transferred to new hands. On routes with particularly high transport volumes, we offer between three and five departures per week and direction, and on the Duisburg-Lübeck route there are even eleven departures. If you multiply the affected connections by the number of weekly departures, you get a rough idea of how many trains are now running under the new management. There are several hundred per week,’ summarises Krebs. KombiRail Europe alone now handles more than 60 additional round trips on behalf of Kombiverkehr. This means that the traction changeover was also a major challenge for the partners. KombiRail Europe took over the first additional connections for Kombiverkehr in August 2024 with the Hamburg-Cologne and Hamburg-Ludwigshafen routes.

Special challenges for the subsidiaries too

The traction changeover was a major task not only for Kombiverkehr, but also for the partners involved. Two examples from the wholly-owned subsidiaries illustrate this:

Take KombiRail Europe, for example: the company first had to create the appropriate human resources - anything but a sure-fire success in times of a shortage of skilled labour. ‘Creating the necessary foundation in the organisation was a challenge,’ emphasises KombiRail Europe Managing Director Gerd Wehland. Within just two quarters, the number of dispatchers working 24/7 has tripled to 16 and the number of train drivers has risen to over 40. This means that the number of employees is now in triple figures, as there are currently 16 wagon inspectors and 33 experts in administration, safety management and train service planning. Two resource management employees work in Kombiverkehr's transport monitoring department, where they work hand in hand with colleagues from the parent company to ensure short information paths and the best possible process reliability during traction changeover.

Take Dienstleistungsgesellschaft für Intermodale Verkehre (DIV), for example: Kombiverkehr's subsidiary specialises in fleet management and wagon maintenance with all the associated certifications. Previously, Kombiverkehr purchased the wagons, including wagon management and traction, as a complete package. Now the operator has moved away from this concept to a considerable extent and rents the wagons at its own risk. DIV thus manages a large fleet of wagons and ensures their efficient utilisation in the trains. ‘We had to procure the specialised equipment on the market within a very short space of time and integrate it into the relevant routes just in time,’ says DIV Managing Director Daniel Jähn, describing the most fundamental activity of the last few weeks and months. ‘This was a unique task for the entire team of employees.’ To visualise the dimensions: It involves a pool of more than 1,600 wagons, which has been managed independently since the beginning of 2025.

EU Commission proceedings as the trigger for the reorganisation of transport services

The reorganisation of transport operations was unavoidable from Kombiverkehr's point of view due to existing uncertainties regarding the continuation of the possible cooperation with DB Cargo in the intermodal block train business. The background to this decision was a case brought by the EU Commission against the Federal Republic of Germany. ‘If we had not acted decisively, the consequences for our customers would not have been foreseeable. There would have been a risk that we would no longer be able to offer train services from one day to the next. We didn't want to risk that,’ says Riedl. ‘Intermodal customers need security and don't want any nasty surprises. We therefore had to reinvent ourselves in terms of traction,’ adds Krebs.

Further information can be found under Homestory at www.kombiverkehr.de

Kombiverkehr has documented information and important milestones in the traction changeover for interested parties on the company website www.kombiverkehr.de. All important facts and dates are listed under the menu item ‘Company’ under ‘Home story’.